Where's all the Savile Row stuff?

Anderson & Sheppard bespoke:



I know, I know...never make an assessment about the fit of a garment from one static photo but measured against nearly identical images from other makers (hard construction notwithstanding) the Anderson coat looks a little...um, dowdy. I've never owned one, but have handled a few and few can compare to A&S "hardly there" feel; it just seems that many of the ones I've seen werent very nicely finished. Ah well, perception....

^ Well, both Huntsmans are the house-standard 1 button, and so is the RA

Originally Posted by Eustace Tilley

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Doesn't he go by the name RSS now?

Oops...my bad. I'll take them down if he objects.

Or maybe we could get some new shots??

Originally Posted by mafoofan

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I'm interested in hearing others' thoughts on the matter. What made you go another route? Price, style, quality, accessibility?
I think we SR customers are too busy trolling for pictures of the British royalty to emulate to post our own pics. Seriously, I think Will's posted a few pictures on his blogsite from different SR tailors, but you probably want more than that. To be honest, the reasons I picked my tailor were his blog, and the pictures of his suits on himself. I know I harp on pictures not telling the complete story, but there it is. It's obviously a huge leap of faith, but I think it's paid off for me. At the time, I was trying to decide between Trabalza, who is in LA, Kilgour (who visits LA), and Mahon (who visits SF). I ruled out Trabalza because he was getting pretty old, and I wanted someone with a rather strong house style because I didn't know much if anything about any of the details that go into a suit's look. From seeing the Oxxford Radcliffe introduced around then (fall 2006) I knew all too well how incoherent a suit could look if one indiscriminately picked and chose different features from many different styles. So it came down to Kilgour and Mahon, and I picked Mahon, partly because I was caught up in the Internet fora drape frenzy, and mostly because I liked the transparency and the feel of his operation through the blog. There weren't very many customers of his on the fora, so I didn't have any recommendations to go on. Knowing what I know now, I was pretty lucky, as it was kind of decided on a lark. --Andre

Originally Posted by Andre Yew

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So it came down to Kilgour and Mahon, and I picked Mahon, partly because I was caught up in the Internet fora drape frenzy, and mostly because I liked the transparency and the feel of his operation through the blog. There weren't very many customers of his on the fora, so I didn't have any recommendations to go on. Knowing what I know now, I was pretty lucky, as it was kind of decided on a lark.

--Andre

If we ever meet, Andre, I have some interesting stories to share with you.

- B

Originally Posted by voxsartoria

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If we ever meet, Andre, I have some interesting stories to share with you.

If that gets too scary, at least we can talk about our other eerily similar hobbies, like your beautifully modified car.

--Andre

Originally Posted by Andre Yew

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If that gets too scary, at least we can talk about our other eerily similar hobbies, like your beautifully modified car.

--Andre

Hah! Not scary at all...the Edwin and Tom novella is fun and great, almost a caper, and even better because they remain great pals. The two mates together this past New Year's Eve morning:



Edwin on the left, Tom on the right. Alan Pitt behind on the right...Paul Griffith behind on the left...I imagine Paul puts together your coats. With Edwin, Tom, and Alan together, you have quite a concentrated mass of direct Scholte descendants.

Uhm, do you track your car?

- B

Andre, thanks for the comprehensive and upfront account. I can't say that my own decisions have been particularly well-grounded. Although I was certainly attracted to the reputation and history, I picked Rubinacci because I wanted something 'soft' and 'Neapolitan'--vague notions at best.

I didn't foresee how much I would benefit from Mariano's excellent judgment. I recall Iammatt mentioning something to me way back on AAAC about how one should pick Rubinacci for Mariano's taste and not for the sake of an involved collaboration. I didn't fully get what he was talking about until my first fitting in Naples. I really lucked out.

It looks like you've found a similarly trusty advisor in Mahon. But neither you nor I could have known how much we would come to depend upon our respective tailors until the choice had already been made. In that sense, I don't think there's a way to go about picking a tailor without taking a huge risk.

Would pictures help? I'm not sure--but maybe. For me, pictures of the fitting process are some of the most enlightening. It's hard to see the intricacies of how something is constructed and shaped when you're looking at the final product. At that point, it tends to simply look good or bad.

Originally Posted by Andre Yew

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I think we SR customers are too busy trolling for pictures of the British royalty to emulate to post our own pics.

Seriously, I think Will's posted a few pictures on his blogsite from different SR tailors, but you probably want more than that.

To be honest, the reasons I picked my tailor were his blog, and the pictures of his suits on himself. I know I harp on pictures not telling the complete story, but there it is. It's obviously a huge leap of faith, but I think it's paid off for me.

At the time, I was trying to decide between Trabalza, who is in LA, Kilgour (who visits LA), and Mahon (who visits SF). I ruled out Trabalza because he was getting pretty old, and I wanted someone with a rather strong house style because I didn't know much if anything about any of the details that go into a suit's look. From seeing the Oxxford Radcliffe introduced around then (fall 2006) I knew all too well how incoherent a suit could look if one indiscriminately picked and chose different features from many different styles.

So it came down to Kilgour and Mahon, and I picked Mahon, partly because I was caught up in the Internet fora drape frenzy, and mostly because I liked the transparency and the feel of his operation through the blog. There weren't very many customers of his on the fora, so I didn't have any recommendations to go on. Knowing what I know now, I was pretty lucky, as it was kind of decided on a lark.

Originally Posted by voxsartoria

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I'm breathing a sigh of relief. That's a great picture. Paul does put my coats together ... in his shed!

Uhm, do you track your car?

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The Corkscrew at Laguna Seca:


Buttonwillow:


The BMW 328Ci's retired from track duty (with about 5000 track miles out of 108K miles), and only does normal driving duties these days. It has Bilstein PSS9s, UUC sway bars, strut bar, and short shift kit. The Porsche is stock.

--Andre

^^^ Sweet. I'll have to dig out photos from Le Circuit Mont-Tremblant...

- B

Originally Posted by mafoofan

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Andre, thanks for the comprehensive and upfront account. I can't say that my own decisions have been particularly well-grounded. Although I was certainly attracted to the reputation and history, I picked Rubinacci because I wanted something 'soft' and 'Neapolitan'--vague notions at best.

Not to discount the randomness of your choice, but in retrospect, if I were in your shoes, I think I'd be more comfortable, because you had Iammatt's pictures, experience, and advice to go on, and could see the product itself. On the other hand, perhaps that's offset by the need to travel to Naples to see your tailor which is relatively difficult. Nevertheless, custom is a big risk, especially considering the high price and long lead times.

I know of at least one poster here who is not happy with Tom's work, but I think that will be true for any tailor no matter how good. If there's one thing I've learned about the custom process is that the relationship between client and tailor is very important for both sides: for the tailor to understand what the client wants, and for the client's expectations to meet reality.

--Andre

Originally Posted by Andre Yew

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Not to discount the randomness of your choice, but in retrospect, if I were in your shoes, I think I'd be more comfortable, because you had Iammatt's pictures, experience, and advice to go on, and could see the product itself. On the other hand, perhaps that's offset by the need to travel to Naples to see your tailor which is relatively difficult. Nevertheless, custom is a big risk, especially considering the high price and long lead times.

Iammatt's procedural guidance and lessons on the fact and fiction of Neapolitan style/tailoring were the most helpful factors to me. But I didn't really understand what he meant until later on--even now I have trouble describing Rubinacci's style. Stupidly, I didn't take a careful look at his pictures at the time; I only began browsing the WAYWT threads later on.

So, you are definitely right: having someone else's path to follow is really invaluable. Yet one more reason to post pictures!

Originally Posted by mafoofan

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But I didn't really understand what he meant until later on--even now I have trouble describing Rubinacci's style.

Same difficulty for me for the SR take on Scholte. Before doing custom, I thought suits were just shoulders and silhouette, having experienced only the homogeneity of RTW, but now I realize there are a lot more things going on, most of which are beyond my ability to verbally articulate.

--Andre

Feel free to post the pictures of the various coats ... I'm the same RSS as the RSS of AskAndy ... and don't mind one bit that they might be posted here on my uhhhh ... well ... uhhh ... preferred style forum.

The only thing I might add is that I'm sorry for being so stiff in the various shots ... but I wanted to do my best to give an apples to apples comparison. Also ... I have no clue how that pocket square got that way ... perhaps my assistant/make-up artist -- my niece -- for the photo-shoot assisted a bit too much. Also ... as I recall, the wrinkle in the A&S is from having been improperly placed in the garment bag the night before the photos were taken. Perhaps I can re-shoot that soon ... as that problem was remedied shortly thereafter.

As an addition to this thread ... I'll see if I can find a photo of a recent A&S coat ... the one button in house tweed with a butter yellow lining -- and yes, RJman ... it is indeed Land O'Lakes and not Imperial margarine yellow. Perhaps some might consider it better fitting.

In fact ... I'll just re-post the removed pics personally ... from my computer ... and not as copied from another website ... so there can be no ill feelings. And feel free to copy the new links and paste in the previous post ... if appropriate.

EDIT: Oh ... as for a less stifly posed photo ... I add the one at the very bottom ... which was taken for professional purposes. You know ... if it would help ... I could have coats by the various tailors re-shot in more natural poses ... but I'm not sure it would be apples to apples ... pehaps apples to dates?


The Dege Coat:

The Huntsman Coat:

The Richard Anderson Coat:

The Anderson & Sheppard Coat:

A Not so Stiffly Posed Richard Anderson:

Further Edit: (obvoiusly I'm not working hard enough today)

Originally Posted by yeah_ok

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[P]lease -- for the love of pete, and any newbies -- please make a comment in these situations that such articles of clothing are not to be aspired to by the vast majority of forum browsers....)

I had also posted some pictures of different SR styles in that thread about the eye-gauging shoulders on the Bond suit

http://www.styleforum.net/showthread...99&#post851199

Just google researching of course, no personal experience